Okra

[DonDuck]

I've known people who whipped their tomato plants to increase production. It actually works because the strong movement causes the blossoms to self pollinate in the same manner touching a branch with a battery powered tooth brush vibrates and pollinates tomato blossoms. I've known people who whipped the plants with a broom but not a stick. We have some pretty strong winds in North Texas and it does a good job of shaking the plants. I don't need to whip or yell at my tomatoes.



I don't think okra is self pollinating, so I don't think it would work on okra.

[Rajun Gardener]

I've heard many people talking about whipping okra but the only logical explanation I can give is to remove the older leaves. That opens up the plant to promote sideshoots and stresses the plant a little.

I've never done it and it's probably because I cut off the leaf with the okra. There's no need for the leaf at the pod node and it just gets in the way trying to harvest plus it reduces the chance of it rubbing on your arms and getting all itchy.

[Worth1]

Okra is self pollinating.

[Tormato]

If you do a search for Olasantan and Salau, you may find techniques of pruning for increased production.

[roper2008]

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[MikeInCypress]

Old Time KTRH Garden Talk Host Bob Flagg used to talk about whipping Pear Tree Trunks to get the trees to set fruit. He swore it worked. I've never grown Pears so I don't know.

MikeInCypress

[DonDuck]

I sure miss the old victory garden shows on PBS on saturday mornings. Most years, I would watch Justin Wilson cooking the stuff Cajun style that I watched growing on the morning shows. The cooking shows don't interest me much anymore. The chefs today seem more interested in the visual art of cooking than the taste. I like artistry, but I'm not interested in mixing art and food.


I no longer watch PBS. They seem to be focusing everything on their subscription programming. On their regular programming, they constantly are having fund raising or rerun after rerun of programs which were not interesting the first time they showed them ten years ago.

[Fusion_power]

Years ago, my 6 year old son got a large kitchen knife and "whacked" a young pecan tree with it until he had nearly girdled it. It may have done something because that tree produced a huge crop of pecans the next year.

An old technique for producing avocados is to girdle the trunk during the growing season. As the trunk heals, the tree top pushes nutrients into the fruit instead of into the roots.

I've grown a few dozen varieties of okra over the years. Granny Franklin (Sandhill Preservation) dings all the bells as a general purpose okra for frying, steaming, pickling, and making soup and gumbo. Jing Orange and Cowhorn are comparable in production but not as well adapted for pickling.

I made a cross between Lee and Cowhorn a couple of years ago and intend to grow out the seed this spring. My issue with Cowhorn is that the plants get up to 15 feet tall by the end of the season. Lee is very short in stature and gets tough too soon. I'm going to attempt to select a short internode okra that makes hundreds of long tender pods like Cowhorn on plants less than 8 feet tall.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Years ago, my 6 year old son got a large kitchen knife and "whacked" a young pecan tree with it until he had nearly girdled it. It may have done something because that tree produced a huge crop of pecans the next year.

An old technique for producing avocados is to girdle the trunk during the growing season. As the trunk heals, the tree top pushes nutrients into the fruit instead of into the roots.

I've grown a few dozen varieties of okra over the years. Granny Franklin (Sandhill Preservation) dings all the bells as a general purpose okra for frying, steaming, pickling, and making soup and gumbo. Jing Orange and Cowhorn are comparable in production but not as well adapted for pickling.

I made a cross between Lee and Cowhorn a couple of years ago and intend to grow out the seed this spring. My issue with Cowhorn is that the plants get up to 15 feet tall by the end of the season. Lee is very short in stature and gets tough too soon. I'm going to attempt to select a short internode okra that makes hundreds of long tender pods like Cowhorn on plants less than 8 feet tall.

The seed that Rajun sent me is just what you describe you are looking for but with one big drawback and that was the stuff didn't start producing pods until almost fall. I am going to try starting it in the greenhouse today and see if I can set it out earlier and get earlier production out of it this year. The variety is some type of Cowhorn cross that doesn't get but about 7 or 8 feet tall which is easily half what Cowhorn gets down here. The plants are really thick and bushy and need a lot of space between them. Once the plants started making very very late they made like crazy and were easy to pick due to the shorter plants.

I'll keep you posted on how it performs this year because for me it would be an ideal okra for down here if I can get it to start making a couple of months earlier. I ended up having to thin it to six to seven feet apart and whipping the stew out of it to finally get it producing last year. I am hoping it does better this year.

Bill

[JRinPA]

Ah, new okra thread this year. I will subscribe.



I may beat the okra this year, but certainly not our pear tree.



Thankfully I have not seen any stinkbugs on okra. The pests we get up here on okra are Japanese beetles. They happily eat the leaves for the 1 month or so that they are rampant, but in the garden they are not too hard to funnel into a jar of soapy water. The other bug that really seems to hang on the okra are these new imports, the spotted lantern flies. They are a sap sucker and I really haven't noticed damage to the okra, but they get all over the stalk. At the comm garden there is a little pond and there I also get these little thumbnail size tree frogs on the okra. I'm not sure if they are eating any bugs or just hanging there for shade during the day, but it is nice to see them. They don't seem to climb on the corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, or anything else, just the okra.

[Gardeneer]

When do you sow your okra,,relative to tomato and peppeprs plant out ?
Talking about plant size , i have never had anything taller than 4ft.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

When do you sow your okra,,relative to tomato and peppeprs plant out ?
Talking about plant size , i have never had anything taller than 4ft.

Grow some Cowhorn or some Beck's and you will see tall okra. Plant out as soon as it is warm enough or start inside early so as soon as it gets in the 80s you can set it out.

Bill

[MrBig46]

I got the seeds from Brynn MdTNGrdner (big thanks). I'd like to plant them now and grow seedlings behind the window. I am only afraid that the seedlings will be too high on May 15th. The seeds will germinate at 24 ° C and the seedlings will grow at 18 ° C. Should I still wait or start?
Vladimír

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by MrBig46

I got the seeds from Brynn MdTNGrdner (big thanks). I'd like to plant them now and grow seedlings behind the window. I am only afraid that the seedlings will be too high on May 15th. The seeds will germinate at 24 ° C and the seedlings will grow at 18 ° C. Should I still wait or start?
Vladimír

I would wait okra hates any cold weather.

[MrBig46]

What do you mean by cold weather?
Vladimír